A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
chaos past
It’s Chinese New Year and it’s snowing, so here’s a flashback photo of how things were pre Guiliani firework ban in 1997, when red paper from the firecrackers coated everything, mixing in with the slush and snow. Hard to believe that this was real
Ludlow living
With its brass fittings and ceramic knobs, our Peerless cast iron stove is the original to the building, built in 1900. We used it every day for decades, right up until the gas was cut in 2018. No more gas. The building was rewired for electric cookers, but we really didn’t want an oversize, ugly, inefficient white box sitting in the room, so we went for an induction cooktop and parked it on the vintage Peerless. Technological opposites. With this and the Breville toaster oven, we have it covered.
The door was originally white enamel, gray knob, dark red lettering. The knobs for the grill and oven are on the side, while the hole on the front is to light the oven.
Running up from the back of the stove is the gas line for the gaslight fitting which is still there - now that’s very old school. A friend from England and frequent visitor and guest went to check out The Tenement Museum when it opened in 1988 - we had a call from her exclaiming “I’ve just paid $10 to see your apartment!”
You can pick up on another common feature of these old apartments In these two photos - the multi-textured layering, with thick paint covering every surface
meanwhile,
following up on issue #8, this was the 4”x6” piece I donated to Visual Aids - it was a very successful fund raiser where over 1000 pieces were bought, raising over 150K. Many happy customers for a good cause - supporting artists living with HIV and sustaining the legacies of those lost to AIDS.
messaging special
I have quite a few ‘couples' postcards - mostly Italian. Here’s one, and what is going on here anyway? She’s sitting in the bush, on a wall? Is he preventing her falling in? maybe not - fill in the story. It’s pretty bizarre and I’d be curious to see the other photos from this shoot.
Hard to say which is more amazing: the fireworks or the stove. Both are vivid in my memories!
It looks creepy and threatening. 🙁